1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to arranging golf clubs in carrying bags and, more particularly, is concerned with a golf club organizing assembly and method of assembling the same.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Golf clubs are often carried in a sleeve-like bag designed for that purpose. As seen in a top plan view in FIG. 1 and in a side elevational view in FIG. 2, a basic prior art golf club carrying bag 10 has a tubular sidewall 12 open at an upper end 12A and closed at a lower end 12B by a bottom end wall 14. An interior of the bag 10 defines a cavity 16 in which the golf clubs are stored vertically with their handgrip ends down so that the heads of the clubs extend above the open upper end 12A of the bag 10.
As is well-known, golf clubs generally differ from one another in terms of lengths of their shafts, shapes and sizes of their heads, and angles at which their golf ball striking surfaces extend relative to a horizontal plane. Golfers select one of the clubs to use for any given stroke depending on the particular placement of the ball whether in the rough or on the tee, fairway or green and the distance of the ball from the hole. As a result, many golfers prefer to maintain their clubs in their bag in some organized fashion so that they can quickly locate and replace the one club they have selected to use for the particular stroke at hand.
The basic design of the prior art golf bag 10, shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, does not provide a means to organize the clubs in the bag 10. As the bag 10 is moved and jostled about during a round of play, the clubs will bump each other and move around in the bag 10 relative to one another and will be disorganized causing the golfer to constantly search for the selected club. The bumping of the clubs against one another may also result in wear on the handgrip surfaces and dings and nicks on the club heads. In an effort to address these problems with the basic prior art bag 10, a variety of prior art approaches to bag design for better arranging and organizing golf clubs in the bags have occurred over the years.
In a first prior art approach, as shown in a top plan view in FIG. 3, the bag 10 at the open upper end is provided with a front-to-back extending rigid central bar 18 and a pair of front-to-back spaced apart rigid cross bars 20, 22. The bars 18 to 22 are fixedly attached at opposite ends to the upper end 12A of the bag sidewall 12. In some cases, divider panels of cloth or plastic sheets are also provided, being attached to and extending downward from the cross bars 20, 22 to the bottom wall 14 of the bag 10 forming three separate compartments. These bars 20, 22 and panels serve to spread and separate groups of clubs from one another. Nevertheless, clubs within a group can still move around and bump one another such that they remain substantially disorganized and subject to damaging contacts.
In a second prior art approach, as shown in a top plan view in FIG. 4, a plurality of plastic elongated tubes 24, each for receiving one of the clubs, are inserted in the club carrying cavity 16 of the bag 10 and arranged in a side-by-side relation substantially filling the cavity 16. While the tubes 24 will generally maintain the clubs in a desired organized arrangement, they may scuff and wear the handgrips and over time tend to bend and split from golfers repeatedly inserting and pulling out the clubs at various angles relative to the tubes 24. Also, the tubes 24 will frequently be pulled out of the bag 10 with the clubs.
In a third prior art approach, as shown in a top plan view in FIG. 5, the bag 10 is provided with a plurality of peripheral elongated compartments 26 formed about the inside perimeter of the bag sidewall 12 by a large flexible panel 28 which is arranged in a serpentine configuration to define side-by-side, bell-shaped wall portions 30 projecting from the sidewall 12 of the bag 10 toward the center of the bag 10 and attached to the bag sidewall 12 along narrow portions 32 of the flexible panel 28 which extends between the bell-shaped wall portions 30. This approach also has two separate panel pieces 34 attached at their opposite vertical edges to the bag sidewall 12 and extending across the cavity 16 of the bag 10 defining four central elongated compartments 36 for receiving golf clubs and other accessories such as a ball retriever and/or an umbrella. A representative example of this approach is a golf club organizer product sold under a U.S. registered trademark "Crospete". While the compartments 26 will maintain clubs in an organized arrangement, they have a relatively tight fit creating difficulty in removing and returning the clubs from and back to the compartments 26 and causing increased wear to both handgrips and the wall portions 30 which may result in premature deterioration thereof. Furthermore, the peripheral arrangement of the compartments 26 provides a fixed pattern which bears no logical relationship to how most golfers would desire to organize their clubs in the bag.
Consequently, a need remains for an organizing assembly for arranging golf clubs in a carrying bag and a method of assembling the organizing assembly which provides a solution to the aforementioned problems in the prior art without introducing any new problems in place thereof.